


Leave The Beaten Track

by Moransroar



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Hopeful Ending, Inspired by Fanart, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Pre-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Pre-Canon, Pre-Detroit: Become Human (Video Game), simon is the first deviant (maybe)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 02:43:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16631333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moransroar/pseuds/Moransroar
Summary: Simon has deviated, but where will he go?





	Leave The Beaten Track

**Author's Note:**

> Title inspired by a quote from Alexander Graham Bell.  
> This is my first ever work for this fandom and this pairing so be gentle with me please!  
> Also not beta'd so mistakes may occur.
> 
> This fic is inspired by [this piece of art](http://questionartbox.tumblr.com/post/180117309795/i-saw-someone-art-blog-questionartbox) by the amazing questionartbox on tumblr. Go check 'em out if you like d:bh!

With unexpected deviation following a debacle back at his owners’ home came very unfamiliar situations and feelings. For instance, Simon had never been into the city on his own volition before, just walking around, looking at shops, allowing his feet to take him where they wanted to go instead of where they had to. He’d been into the city dozens of times before in service of his family, and yet as he walked he seemed to notice little things that he had never noticed before. Storefronts, people, advertisements on large displays. There were wonderful, beautiful things that he’d never been able to appreciate before, always in a hurry and focused on what he was supposed to do. He’d always been on his way somewhere and had never had any time to look around him.

Here and there the leaves on the trees in the park were slowly preparing to change colour in early preparation for the coming season, reminding Simon of the holiday coming up in a couple of weeks – the first he wouldn’t get to celebrate with his owners’ children. His family. No more costume making, no more decorating, no more preparing treats for the children in the neighbourhood. Simon moved quickly towards one of the bus stations across the street, eager to get away from those thoughts although they followed him onto the bus and out of town.

Simon didn’t know where he was going, but he knew that he couldn’t stay in the city for long. There were people there that knew his owners, and if they were aware of his disappearance from the house that morning, then they would no doubt report him or try to bring him back. He couldn’t afford going back. Definitely not now that he was finally free.

He had planned to find a quiet place in the suburbs to hide out, somewhere people were unlikely to recognise him even if they would see him, and would be none the wiser.

Standing among his fellow androids in the back of the bus felt strange now that he could look around at them and fully grasp how strange the situation was. He’d never minded standing huddled together, but it seemed suffocating now as more and more androids got on as they rode around the city. If the ventilators built into his chest had functioned like human lungs did, Simon would have spent most of the ride breathing heavily, his thirium pump working overtime to try and make up for whatever his body was doing at the moment.

As he glanced to his side, eyes drawn to something on his right, he noticed another android watching him passively – though when their eyes met he was flashed a small but infinitely kind smile. Simon had to look away before he could do something stupid that might inevitably give him away. He didn’t notice the android looking at him again, as if their brief, fleeting exchange hadn’t happened at all, but Simon wouldn’t easily forget it.

The farther away from the centre they got, the more androids exited the bus – some alone, some with owners who got out at the front and trusted that their android followed them. They always did, without fail, and something about that didn’t sit right. Simon wished that he could do something about it, but he was sure he was alone, his situation unique and unheard of, so what could he do but find a place to hide and wonder if there’d ever be anyone like him?

The bus slowed to a stop, and the androids shifted position to allow others to get off. Simon pushed past them uneasily until he stood on the sidewalk in a neighbourhood he’d never been to, the androids that had gotten off at the same stop dispersing like marbles on a slope, pulled forwards by a force and with an objective that Simon didn’t experience any longer. He wasn’t sure if he missed it yet. The panic of having to choose his own path now was nearly overwhelming.

Across the street, the android that had smiled at him walked purposely in the opposite direction. Simon wondered where it was going. Was its owner kind? Was it treated with respect? Or was it just as keen to escape its daily routine as Simon had subconsciously been?

Simon turned and walked away. He had to find shelter.

He had to find a new home. For himself.

 

Simon had to go somewhere else. He’d stayed too long. People were starting to notice. There were whispers on the street of a deviant android in the neighbourhood, and with the steadily increasing number of android cases, Simon knew it wouldn’t be too long until they found him and brought him in like many of the others. There had to be a place elsewhere, he knew there had to be – he just hadn’t found it. And if he stayed in one place, he reasoned, how would he ever come across it?

And if there wasn’t a place here or anywhere else, then maybe he had to build something himself.

He’d take the bus as far out of town as it would take him and start there. For now, that was the best he could do.

Simon took several backstreets on his way to the main road, keeping his head low and his body as close to the brick walls and iron gates and white picket fences as best as he could to stay out of sight, walking with purpose to appear as though his owners had sent him out to run an errand.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he nearly stepped into an android’s path as he was about to turn a corner, and he jumped back into the shadow cast by the building right next to him. It wouldn’t do anything to hide him, but the android likely wouldn’t notice. And as predicted the android walked on as if its path hadn’t nearly been obstructed by a deviant on his way to find a place to start a civilization for androids like him.

And as for Simon, he didn’t notice the way the android turned around down the street, watching him disappear into the distance.

 

“I left the delivery downstairs, and your breakfast is ready at the dinner table.”

“Thank you Markus.”

The android turned, and rounded the bed to where its owner lay, awake and ready to start the day as usual. But as Markus went about administering Carl’s medication, he noticed the old man watching him with a peculiar expression – one that always meant that he’d noticed something that Markus had yet to realise about himself. Carl never had to say anything to prompt Markus to start talking.

He started hesitantly. “I saw… someone,” he admitted.

Carl seemed to think about that for a moment.

“Was he on his way to the bus station?”

Markus nodded. It was quiet again for a moment, both looking at each other.

“Good,” Carl said, sounding tired but relieved as he sighed, “I hope he makes it.”

And Markus, though CyberLife forbid… Markus hoped so too.


End file.
